[turkey day, nov 21]

[youfeelluckypunk]

They've graciously been invited to Derek's Thanksgiving celebration on the actual day itself, but Reid had gotten to thinking after Luke had told him of the invitation that it would be nice to throw a small get-together of their own. Halloween at the bookstore had been a success, after all, and in spite of the fact that they'd been sent to a hellish version of Darrow for the next ten days, Reid had really enjoyed planning and decorating for the holiday with his boyfriend. In a way, it also serves as a bit of a housewarming, even if nobody else needs to know that. They've been officially living together for a week now, though the only real difference is that he's handed over his keys to the Dimera apartment back to the landlord.

Still, being able to call this apartment home, knowing that he gets to spend every night with the man he loves, it means something special to him, and he wants to share that sense of home with the rest of the people he cares about.

So he sends out texts to Alec and Magnus, Peter and Jason and Hild, telling them all to save the date for the twenty-first so they can have an early Thanksgiving celebration. Others are welcome, of course, and Reid suspects they'll have more than enough food because he'd made arrangements for one restaurant in particular (one that he visits often and had already been promoting take-out for Thanksgiving Day) to set him up with a turkey dinner early. There are all the expected fixings, though he'd ordered four turkeys because Luke still needs to eat more to make up for all the weight he'd lost in the alternate version of Darrow, plus a couple pumpkin pies and various other desserts strewn out across the table. The wine Peter had given to him on Halloween is out, available for consumption to those who want it, but Reid will be sticking to water tonight.

If anyone asks, he's been slaving away in the kitchen all day long, brewing coffee after coffee as he and Luke make sure everything looks nice and neat for their first Thanksgiving dinner together. The food is set out over the counter in the kitchen, china and utensils and glassware placed at the very end so people can take what they want and find a place to eat in the living room, where they've placed extra chairs, and it isn't until they hear the first knock at the door that Reid finally decides he's satisfied with the way everything looks.

Every single person who will be here tonight has been through so much, seen more than one person ever should, but tonight, Reid is just grateful that they're all still here.

Comments

[brightest_lights]

"Hey, I'd ride a bike in a second if I had one," she said with a laugh, and she shakes her head ruefully. Sighing, she shrugs her shoulders. "Yeah, I... I am, too. It's about time that I had just... a nice date, with a nice guy, you know? Like, no weird guys into vampires, no crazy psycho stalkers-- Neal's just... normal." Shrugging, she looks over at him for a long second.

"He knows I'm a vampire," she confesses quietly. "I don't know if it freaks him out enough that we're just... you know. Only the one date? But at least that one was nice. And either way, I didn't want him to be alone on Thanksgiving, if he didn't want to be."

[notaretriever]

"It's good he knows," Luke says, because that's something he's worried about himself once or twice in the past. With Reid he hadn't needed to worry and he'd been relieved that he'd revealed what he is so early on in their friendship. By the time they'd actually gotten together, it had been on the table for a long time already, and Reid had been given plenty of time to get used to it and had seemed not only accepting of the situation, but comfortable with it.

"That's really important," he says, even though he's sure she knows that. "And I'm glad it was a nice date. I'm glad you invited him tonight. If I get him alone, I can't promise I'm not going to go at least a little overprotective werewolf figure on him, though."

[brightest_lights]

"Yeah, it.... it is, I think. It's just..." The words kind of die in her throat, and she shrugs. "He's a nice guy," she finally says. "So it's good that he knows." There's something almost wistful in the way she says it, before she takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders, flashing a quick smile.

"I don't know if he knows werewolves are a thing - I mean, I'd guess so? He knows about vampires and dwarves, and he was... I mean, he was wherever we were, too, so he definitely knows monsters are a thing," she says with a shrug, trying not to chew on her lip. "But overprotect away. And I appreciate it," she says with a bump of her arm against his. "It's... nice, that you watch out for me. Thank you." Luke's friendship was one of the few constants she's had here, and she can't even tell him just how grateful she's been for it.

[notaretriever]

"So I should flash the scary golden eyes, either to intimidate him or just introduce him to the world he's getting himself into?" Luke asks with another small smile. He has no intention of doing that and he really has no intention of giving Caroline's new friend the third degree. Trusting that she can make her own decisions is part of respecting her, so until this man gives him a reason to think otherwise, Luke will assume he's treating her well.

"He might want to know at some point," he says. "That there are werewolves. That you're close to one."

[brightest_lights]

She makes a face at him, and then sighs. "I know, I just... want to see if- I mean. Maybe he can get over the me being a vampire thing and we could..." The words die off, and the only way to describe the look on Caroline's face is wistful. "Maybe we could just sort of go out for a while? Before it got too weird." She's used to that, it getting too weird-- that's why Matt had dumped her, but the fact that he'd turned around and started dating an immortal thousand-year-old vampire instead...

Whelp.

"But I'll tell him. He should know, for his own protection if nothing else. Not from you, I mean, but like - that they're real. And if-"

She pauses. "Uh. Klaus. If Klaus shows up, ever." There's something with the way she says it, that somehow underscores the way that her stomach's flopped over in an unpleasant way at the thought. It's not a good one. Not at all. Obsessive, immortal semi-ex boyfriend who's a vampire-werewolf hybrid? Even without what'd happened last week, it wouldn't be a good thing, and now? .... Well.